Today, product data and pricing information at retail store locations are typically updated manually. For example, at many retail stores such as large grocery chains, in-store systems (e.g., point-of-sale (POS) systems) receive price changes in batch files from a central retailer system on a per department basis (e.g., grocery, dairy, produce, etc.). Paper or plastic price labels are then shipped to the store, often with the products or inventory from the central warehouse. The various departments are then responsible for putting up and/or otherwise displaying the new price labels and/or promotional signs for customers. Once displayed, a responsible party from the department can input a command to the in-store system for the system to update the prices and/or promotions for the department. Unfortunately, this manual process for updating in-store systems with pricing and promotional information is time consuming, relatively static and subject to inaccuracies and fines.
In recent years, efforts have been made to automate the process for updating in-store systems with pricing and/or promotional information. For the most part these efforts have been unsuccessful as they often require major investments in equipment and proprietary communication technologies, as well as costly infrastructure (e.g., power) upgrades. Consequently, few, if any, of these automated system have been adopted on a large scale.
Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related systems and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior systems will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following.